Former Border Patrol agent gets 2 years for role in drug trafficking

Updated 7:05 pm, Tuesday, September 12, 2017

McALLEN - A former U.S. Border Patrol agent has been sentenced to two years in federal prison for working with drug traffickers to stage seizures of fake drugs, federal prosecutors said.

Eduardo Bazan Jr., 49, pleaded guilty in June to having make false statements regarding a scheme to seize fake narcotics, and redistribute the real cocaine for profit. U.S. District Judge Randy Crane ordered Bazan to prison followed by three years of supervised release.

Bazan admitted to lying about a 2007 seizure near McAllen in which agents found 66 kilograms of cocaine that may have been staged with sham narcotics to allow drug traffickers to steal the real cocaine from unsuspecting suppliers. In return for his role in the deception, Bazan was paid $8,000, records show.

Bazan told U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations that he had attempted to catch people fleeing a Honda Civic loaded with bundles of cocaine. He later confessed the vehicle was abandoned, and that he had run from the scene to make other agents believe the vehicle had been occupied.

The former agent was permitted to remain on bond and voluntarily surrender to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.